Reggie Theus was fired by Cal State Northridge on Wednesday, but not before he the also-fired athletic director Brandon Martin reportedly got into an altercation. (AP Photo)

On Wednesday, Cal State Northridge announced that men’s basketball coach Reggie Theus and athletic director Brandon Martin had been fired from their positions. But the day before their firings were announced by the university, the two reportedly got into a heated altercation.

It’s not known what the fight was about, but Theus filed a battery complaint against Martin on Tuesday. The Northridge Police Department is investigating the incident and was unable to give further details. However, ESPN has a few more nuggets of information on the incident, which occurred just before 4pm on Tuesday afternoon.

Martin informed Theus he was being let go, and the two proceeded to get into a heated verbal altercation, a source close to the situation told ESPN. The source said Martin and Theus have had a tenuous relationship for years.

The source also told ESPN that no punches were thrown, though the incident did involve the two men being chest to chest.

So there was no physical violence, but there were violent words and some chest touching.

Martin, who played for USC, was hired as Northridge’s athletic director in 2013. Just a few months later he brought in Theus, a former UNLV standout who had retired from the NBA. As coach, Theus went 53-105 over five seasons, with a 26-54 record in the Big West. In 2018, the team was 6-24.

A lack of success on the court only compounded the issues off the court. In 2016, the school imposed a one-year postseason ban on itself when it discovered that the director of basketball operations had completed online coursework for ten members of the basketball team. The staffer was fired, and the NCAA put Northridge on three years of probation and ordered them to vacate team records that involved the players.